Saturday, July 13, 2013

The previous Friday, July 5, was Kei's last day in the office, before her maternity leave starts. The next day, Saturday, July 6, Kei's mom arrived here in Singapore.

Our expected date of delivery was July 25.

But early morning on Sunday, around 3am, Kei woke me up. She got out of bed 20 minutes ago and had already fallen back asleep, but she suddenly awoke because she felt something wet. That was it. Her waterbag broke. It was a good thing that she had already prepared a baby bag with all the stuff we needed to bring to the hospital, in case we had to rush. Exactly like our situation then. At around 4am, we were already settled in at the hospital's labour ward. I was with Kei at the delivery room. Her mom was out in the waiting area, because only husbands were allowed inside.

She was put under observation, since she wasn't feeling anything else out of the ordinary yet. The nurse checked on her and said she was just 1cm dilated. The nurse on duty then was Filipina.

Around this time, Kei's mom went home for a while. We needed a few more things from home, and she wanted to cook and bring our lunch.

After a few hours, it was probably past 7am, a nurse checked on Kei again. She was only 2cm dilated. Progress was a little slow. A bit later, our OB, Dr. Gordon Tan, said that he's going to give Kei something to speed up her dilation. Along with that, Kei decided she wanted her epidural anesthesia, too. That was around 9am.

By 10am, the nurse came to check Kei again. She's now 4 to 5cm dilated. Kei says she already feels the contractions more frequently. Before 11am, she was already 7cm dilated. By 11:30am, she was almost 10cm dilated. The nurse called for Dr. Gordon. Kei's mom also just returned to the hospital.

It was around 12nn when Dr. Gordon entered the delivery room. Everything was all set, and there were two nurses ready to assist. I was directed to stand by the bed, beside Kei. A short while later, Dr. Gordon started instructing Kei to push. Later, after everything was done, Kei said it seemed like she only pushed three times. The delivery was vacuum-assisted, so when Elise came out, there seemed to be a line drawn around the crown of her head.

The delivery was over very quickly. Elise's official time of birth is 12:13am. Immediately after Elise came out, she was placed on top of Kei then Dr. Gordon handed be a pair of scissors, asking me if I wanted to cut the cord. I had no time to think, I just cut it.

Elise was weighed right away, she was 3.03kg. She was hardly cleaned, even for weighing, when she was placed back on top of Kei. Kei was asked to try to breastfeed right away, while the nurses were cleaning and tidying up the delivery room.

After the delivery room was cleaned, Elise was taken and brought to the nursery, for cleaning. Kei's mom and I went with the nurse all the way to the nursery. Kei was waiting to be brought to her room.

The first day, Elise was very sleepy. We only stayed two nights at the hospital, and we were back home Tuesday, after lunch. Elise was waking up, getting hungry and needing diaper changes more often.

We were told before we were discharged to watch out for Elise turning yellow, and that neo-natal jaundice was quite normal. What was needed to be seen was how long it takes before it went away. Friday morning, Elise had a check-up with the pediatrician. When she was seen to still be very yellowish, we were sent to the lab for a blood test. The result was that her bilirubin level was very high (normal range: 0-101, Elise's level: 300+). According to the pediatrician, Elise needed to be admitted for phototherapy.

So now, she's still there at the hospital nursery. She was admitted Friday, 3:30pm. At 9pm that day, we visited her to feed her, even if it was by bottle. Fortunately, we lived so close to the hospital. We were told to hold off on breastfeeding while Elise's treatment wasn't finished yet. We went back twice today, Saturday, to feed her at 11:30am and 8:20pm. Another blood test was done at around 9am, and her bilirubin level went down to 285. There was almost no trace of yellowishness on her tonight! Elise will be discharged tomorrow, Sunday, yay!